


Spooky Sounds

by unsafestpear



Category: Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Even though I'm like old, F/M, Gen, Humor, My First Fanfic, Sexual Humor, but lowkey, crackish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 06:05:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8478154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unsafestpear/pseuds/unsafestpear
Summary: Why didn't Spook become a savant while in Luthadel? Vin and Elend, that's why.





	

Spook lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Even Keep Venture’s guestrooms were more luxurious than anywhere else he’d ever been. The Renoux mansion had been nice, but Spook had slept in the servant’s quarters as part of the masquerade. The perks of killing god, Breeze said, included being able to sleep wherever you wanted. Still, even in such a fine room, Spook couldn't sleep. Too many thoughts were flying around his head. Everyone else had done so much for the plan, he thought. His uncle and Ham had trained the troops that claimed the city. Breeze’s soothing had kept the freed skaa from destroying all of Luthadel. Dockson had kept the city running smoothly for several months now. Vin, Marsh, and Sazed had actually managed to defeat the lord ruler. And Kelsier… Spook pushed down the grief he felt rising up in him. Kelsier had sacrificed everything for the rest of them. But Spook? He’d done nothing to help overthrow the lord ruler.   
“It’s not like I’m some useless kid,” he thought. “I can defend myself, gather information, anything! I’m a tineye! That has to count for something!” But being a tineye wasn’t that useful, he thought. Not like the ability to fling coins, or fly through the air, or run for miles without fatigue. Vin could do all that, and even had the same power he did too. She could augment her senses just the same as he could, and use her others powers to get places Spook never could. If only there were some way he could become truly useful to the crew.   
“Well,” came the thought unbidden in his mind, “there is one way to make yourself a benefit. You know how to made your power grow beyond what others are capable of.” No, he couldn’t do that. It would damage him forever! Spook couldn’t become a savant, could he? Kelsier had warned him about the dangers. He could lose entire senses, or become dependent on tin to feel anything. Kelsier had said Spook should always be careful not to flare tin for too long because of those risks. Of course, Kelsier had also said he’d always be there for the crew. And it wasn’t like their trials were over. Already Spook had heard reports that nobles were marshalling forces to march on Luthadel. Without Kelsier, Spook and the crew would need every bit of strength they could get to survive. Spook got up out of bed and crossed the room to his collection of tin vials. He removed the stopper from one, then paused, his resolve wavering for a moment. Should he really do this? But the momentary hesitation passed. The process was reversible in earlier stages, and now was as good a time to start increasing his power as any, rationalized Spook. He took a deep breath, then downed the vial’s contents. He began burning the tin, slowly increasing the rate and feeling his senses sharpen. The darkened room became clearer. He could see every pore of the stone walls, feel the grain of the wood on his feet, hear every sound of the night… including a strange moaning from within Keep Venture. Spook felt suddenly worried. Was someone under attack, or hurt? He flared his tin to the maximum. Not only was there moaning, but he could hear an odd squishing sound, and a name being whispered in between moans.   
“Vin…” Spook immediately stopped burning tin, blushing at what he’d overheard. He’d known Vin and Elend were dating, but not that their relationship had progressed that far. Spook knew he couldn’t flare his tin again. He not only respected his friends’ privacy, but also felt extremely creepy hearing them… do what they were doing. He returned to bed, trying to put the incident from his mind. It might make a funny story someday, if any of them survived the coming months. Spook returned to bed, his mind made up. He could always start flaring another time, when his friends weren’t doing certain things.  
Spook expected to be able to flare again the next day, but ran into trouble. His extremely fine senses left him vulnerable to even sunlight, which raised awkward questions from the crew. Spook knew they wouldn’t understand why he was trying to become a savant, and might even try to stop him. He could have figured out some excuse, but that wouldn’t have solved the other problem, Elend and Vin. The ability to hear every comment they whispered to each other almost kept him from burning tin at all, let alone flaring it. It turned out Vin and Elend had taken their relationship further than Spook had ever imagined. He now the why Keep Venture appeared to have a second torture chamber upstairs near the bedrooms, and exactly where where the prison’s missing manacles had gone. Elend may have struggled with speaking to the Assembly, but he had no such trouble with talking to Vin about what the pair of them did and were going to do. Vin herself was certainly getting practice with using Allomancy, though probably not in a way Kelsier had taught her. Rioting Elend’s desire, increasing her own strength, and everything in between were creative uses of Allomamcy. Spook heard all of what they planned to do to each other as they whispered in each other's ears every day. Each time Spook hear one of their muttered comments his embarrassment grew. There was no way he could bring up the issue with them. He’d heard too much.  
Spook knew he wasn't advancing towards becoming a savant. Vin may have been practicing her Allomancy in an unorthodox way, but she was improving. Spook couldn’t use his own power without feeling like a creep. He started volunteering for every spying job Doxonar had. Getting away from Vin and Elend’s nightly escapades and daily whispering let him flare his tin. Spook couldn’t make any real improvement though, since every time he returned to Keep Venture after an assignment his progress would grind to a halt as he lay in bed trying not to think about what was going on in the rooms near him. He felt almost excited when he heard that Vin and Elend were having relationship difficulties. He felt bad about it, but was secretly excited that it would give him the opportunity to stretch his own allomantic abilities. Spook’s hope was in vain, however. After a week of blessed silence, the two resumed their nights of debauchery. It seemed the growing likelihood that none of the crew would survive the threats facing Luthadel made Vin and Elend want to celebrate surviving each day. The pair only got worse as their relationship was patched up. Finally, the worst night yet came. Spook could hear them without burning tin at allm and what he heard made their usual shenanigans look tame. What, Spook thought as he pressed a pillow over his head in an attempt to muffle out the sound, could have caused such a dramatic increase. It only took until the next morning, when Sazed gathered everyone to tell them that Vin and Elend had been married the night before, for Spook to realize. He decided to discreetly mention the noise to the pair. Now that everyone without magical senses could hear it too, it didn’t seem like he had intentionally heard them.   
“And maybe someone else will complain and I won’t have to,” he thought as Sazed came up to him and requested a word in private. “After all they’re all around Vin and Elend too. It’s not just me.”  
“No!” Spook said, “absolutely not. There is no way I’m going to abandon everyone and flee the city with Vin and Elend.”  
“Lord Spook”, said Sazed, somehow managing to make the nickname sound refined, “you wouldn’t really be abandoning us. You’d be doing us all a great service by ensuring you three survive.” Spook paced away, Sazed’s eyes on him. True, he wouldn’t be of much use in the upcoming battle. And he knew Vin surviving was what Kelsier would have wanted. But as much as Spook knew fleeing was his only chance of survival, and that in all likelihood Kelsier’s legacy would perish if the whole crew die in the attack, he couldn’t do it. He feared being a coward as much as he feared death, he feared being useless, but above all he feared sleeping in a tent next to the now-married Vin and Elend.  
“No,” said Spook, “you wouldn’t understand why… but I just can’t.” Sazed gazed intently at the young man standing before him.  
“Ah, you don’t want to hear them” he said. Spook turned a bright shade of red and sputtered out, “how did you know?”  
“You aren’t the only one who can augment his senses,” said Sazed. “Not that I needed to, being in the butler’s chamber directly next to their room. I must have filled every tinmind in Luthadel blocking out the noise. I believe I have discovered a solution you could use, however. The Mokian religion revered silence as holy. To experience silence even in crowded areas, they shaped wax and inserted it into their ears to block out sounds. If you were willing to go with Vin and Elend, I could create several of these ‘ear-seals’ for you.”   
“When can we leave?” asked Spook.  
The journey north was relatively uneventful. Spook felt bad about lying to his friends, but even worse about fleeing. He was happy he would live, but couldn’t shake the feeling he was leaving them to die. Kelsier hadn’t been afraid to perish if it meant helping someone. Spook felt not only useless, but like he was a coward. His only comfort was the ear-seals Sazed had given him. Since getting married, Vin and Elend’s nights had been more active than ever. Vin didn’t even bother with the pretense of sleeping in clothing anymore, as Spook had discovered on the trip’s first night when he entered their tent to tell them he’d finished the night watch. Since then, Spook had primarily stayed in his own tent with his ear-seals in. His feelings of guilt continued to grow as they traveled further from Luthadel. Was leaving actually helpful, or was he just telling himself that so he wouldn’t feel like a coward? His regret peaked after Elend and Vin found out the koloss weren’t being kept in check by Jastes anymore. Before then the hope that the city somehow wouldn’t be overrun had kept Spook heading north. After all, what Sazed had told Vin and Elend about Straff Venture peacefully taking the city and defending it from the koloss was a possibility. But hearing that the koloss were free to rampage convinced Spook his uncle had been right; Straff planned to let the koloss attack the city. Spook realized he had to tell Vin and Elend the truth. VIn might not be able to save the crew, but Spook knew all three of them would regret it if she didn’t at least try. As Elend and Vin discussed what the now-leaderless koloss might dom Spook took a deep breath and stepped forward to tell them everything.  
“Well” said Elend as he and Spook watched the dot that was Vin recede on the horizon, “since we can’t move that quickly I don’t think we’d be of much help to them all anyway.” Elend and Spook set about packing up the tents and preparing to depart.  
“It’s almost a shame Vin’s so much faster than us. Obviously it’s best for her to get back as quickly as possible, but I rather enjoyed traveling with her” said Elend. Spook swung up on to his horse. “On plusses, halting much screeching the knotting and sticking” he said. Elend looked bewildered. “I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t understand you” he said.   
“It wasn’t anything important” said Spook. “Definitely not ‘at least you won’t be having such loud, kinky sex’” he thought as they rode away after Vin.   
Spook enjoyed the journey more than one riding to what was, in all likelihood their dead loved ones could be expected to. Without Vin and Elend’s wild nights and dirty talking days, Spook could actually flare his tin. Having that to work on helped take his mind off what they were headed towards. When they finally got back to Luthadel, Spook was shocked to see the hordes of koloss standing peacefully outside the city, and Sazed there to greet him. Somehow, Vin had taken control of the koloss and saved the city. Straff had been defeated, and his army had sworn fealty to Elend. Unfortunately, Spook’s joy was short-lived. His uncle, Tindwyl, and Dockson had all perished in the battle. Spook felt like all the ash in the world had fallen on him. If he hadn’t been useless, if he’d been there to fight… maybe Clubs and the others would still be alive. No one saw Spook for days afterwards. Finally, he was spotted leaving his room. Spook would have been crushed under his guilt if not for a newfound determination. He would become a savant. He woud do whatever it took to keep anyone else from dying because he was a useless coward.   
Spook was having a relatively good day. No days could really be called good since he returned to Luthadel. Spook had been suffering from a strange malady. Since his uncle died, strange attacks of fear had been hitting him. When Spook was going about day to day business, he’d suddenly become so terrified he couldn’t function. Breeze was trying to help him, but Spook could tell the man was more impacted by the deaths than he let on. Still, today had been free of attacks. Spook had even managed to flare tin, since Vin and Elend had left the keep earlier that night. Spook was happy he could finally make progress on flaring. Maybe he could tell Vin and Elend about BOOM. Spook fell to the floor in a daze. Spook couldn’t hear anything but ringing in his ears. “What are those two up to now?” he thought before blacking out.  
Spook woke up in his familiar bed to sunlight and the gaze of Breeze. According to him, Vin had found the Well of Ascension and released its power. Apparently this was a bad thing, and something imprisoned in the well had been set loose. Now they had to defeat it before it could destroy the world. “Of course, what’s more surprising is Elend becoming a mistborn. I still don’t know how the boy pulled off that trick” finished Breeze. A wave of dread rose up in Spook. Elend, a mistborn? Spook knew he should be wondering about whether he could become a mistborn too, but all he could think about was what Elend and Vin could do now that they were both mistborn. Both able to move metal, both able to riot passions in each other, both able to increase their strength and stamina… Spook felt panic coming up on him. This was already not a good day.  
“I think I’d like to go to Urteau” said Spook. Vin looked up from the map she was studying. In the weeks since the incident at the well, much had occurred. Vin had gone to the eastern city indicated on the plate in the vault under Kredik Shaw, where she had found another storage cache and a map leading to Urteau. Now the crew was marshalling an army to seize control of the eastern cache.   
“Why?” asked Vin. “Don’t you want to go on the eastern expedition?”   
“It’s not that,” explained Spook, “I just feel like shouting out the Urteau cache would be more helpful. I might discover something useful, and it's not like I’m necessary for the battle.” Vin’s expression softened.   
“You are useful Spook. You’re a valuable part of the team. You keep us all grounded” she said. “But if you’d feel better scouting out Urteau, I can send you there.” Spook felt relieved Vin had granted his request without too much prodding. He hadn’t even considered removing his ear-seals at night since Elend had become a Mistborn. He’d had to hide a pair though, since most of his had gone missing. Enough for the rest of the crew, in fact. As he packed up his vials of tin for the trip to Urteau, Spook felt an unfamiliar happiness. Now he could finally flare his tin. Nothing would keep him from becoming useful, not even the sheer amount of kinks his friends had.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written fanfic since I was 9, and haven't written anything in a narrative style for some time. Thanks to tumblr user   
> [Leinton](http://leinton.tumblr.com/) for the post "Sexual Uses of Investiture," which was a great source for, well, sexual uses of Investiture.


End file.
